Building modeling and control using multi-step ahead error minimization

As the buildings account for about 40% of global final energy use, the efficient building climate control can significantly contribute to the saving effort. Predictive control can be used to operate buildings in energy and cost effective manner instead of conventional room automation such as PID, weather-compensated controllers or Rule-Based Controllers (RBC). However, the predictive controller has (besides many advantages as the possibility to incorporate the restriction directly into the controller design or handling of MIMO systems in a simple natural way) a drawback - it is the necessity of a proper mathematical model of the controlled system. Therefore, adequate attention should be paid to the procedure leading to its acquirement. In this paper a multi-step ahead error minimization approach to a building modeling is presented and influence of the solar radiation on the quality of the constructed model is examined. Moreover, the results are demonstrated on a real control of six-floor building of the Czech Technical University in Prague.